IIntroducing a groundbreaking technique that seamlessly merges computer-generated and hand-drawn animation techniques, first-time director John Kahrs takes the art of animation in a bold new direction with the Oscar®-nominated short, "Paperman." Using a minimalist black-and-white style, the short follows the story of a lonely young man in mid-century New York City, whose destiny takes an unexpected turn after a chance meeting with a beautiful woman on his morning commute. Convinced the girl of his dreams is gone forever, he gets a second chance when he spots her in a skyscraper window across the avenue from his office. With only his heart, imagination and a stack of papers to get her attention, his efforts are no match for what the fates have in store for him. Created by a small, innovative team working at Walt Disney Animation Studios, "Paperman" pushes the animation medium in an exciting new direction.

This is a great review of what "Paperman" is. It talks a little about the story and the fact that it is made with a new technique that combines the best of both virtual and hand-drawn animation, which is why it was so innovative. Besides, the art in it is so neat, is a must-watch for art directors who want to see an example of awesome black-and-white art. This short film won the Oscar to Best Animated Short Film, and after watching it, there's no wonder why.

I often get asked why a Harvard neuropsychiatrist spends so much time talking about emotions and the brain in front of media and marketing research experts. The answer is that we live in an increasingly competitive world, and relying on what consumers tell us is incomplete, and in many cases just plain inaccurate.

Brand managers must understand how consumers engage on an emotional level in order to accurately predict whether their advertising or any other media content will truly resonate.

The key to success with presentation—and storytelling in general—is to focus not on getting approval or a particular response from the audience, but on giving something meaningful to them. That is, it’s not about getting but about giving.

"...the two most 'dreaded, hated' words at Apple under Steve Jobs were "branding" and "marketing.

...we understood deeply what was important about the product, what the team’s motivations were in the product, what they hoped that product would achieve, what role they wanted it to have in people’s lives

...The most important thing was people's relationship to the product. So any time we said 'brand' it was a dirty word."

The problem with pivot points – events that result in major changes in your organization’s history or your personal career – is that they often slip by unnoticed. The significance of the event isn’t recognized until later.

You typically have to dig deep into the past to identify your pivots, the lessons they taught, and the opportunities they created. The reward for digging deep, however, is that past pivot points often uncover story opportunities that can help you define your brand and create memorable story-based content marketing.

There is a structural/genetic continuity between everyday oral narrative and elaborate literary narratives, with listeners gradually becoming an audience. Literary stories which narrate some character's oral narrating keep us aware of this

Crafting and effectively telling good stories that visually illustrate what is unique, professionally, about you can accomplish precisely that! Why? Because most other candidates will not take this approach. As a matter of fact, most won’t even think about taking it.

Keith Queensbury of Johns Hopkins conducted an analysis of 108 Super Bowl adverts. He found that, ‘regardless of the content of the ad, the structure of that content predicted its success.’ In other words, telling a story was better than listing features (or anything else for that matter).

This is happening to almost everyone I know looking for any kind of work, even those who have been invited into the process — freelance, contract, full-time. The prospective employer/client needs everything now and then it’s radio silence for days, weeks, months — leaving the prospective supplier/employee in the unenviable position of feeling like they must beg for feedback. During the last decade, it became acceptable behavior to simply not answer e-mails. But that’s the worst kind of ego-sucking, demoralizing power play imaginable. We’re all busy. That’s no excuse for disrespect. And the awful truth? I don’t think the employers have a clue. Fearful of losing their own jobs by making a wrong choice, they’ve lost perspective on what matters.

Archplot is human life Story, the one we all use to evaluate and direct our own lives. This is why Archplot has the greatest potential for the largest possible audience. Every person on the planet is a potential reader/viewer.

So I started to think of what sort of game might work with the way people naturally tell stories in conversation. I thought about how: Storytellers negotiate for the floor by submitting a story abstract to the group. Audience members accept, reject, or modify proposed stories during the story abstract. Storytellers embed in their story evaluation statements that prove the story is worth listening to, and communicate their intent in telling it. Audience members redirect stories as they are being told by providing feedback, questions, and corrections. Storytellers negotiate the end of their story (and the return to the normal conversational rhythm) in the story's coda. Audience members participate in fitting the story into the conversation by asking questions about it and discussing aspects of it. Audience members respond to stories with related stories, building chains of connected stories in collaborative exploration of a topic. This all happens without anyone being fully aware that it is happening. You can watch people do all of these things in any casual conversation anywhere in the world, and probably could watch the same thing happen thousands of years ago.

I go on about story sharing being the heart of effective storytelling. But what is that really? Here story colleague Cynthia Kurtz has written a brilliant -- and well thought out -- article on what story sharing is, how it happens, what it looks and feels like.

Even better, she puts it together in a game for us. Yay! Get your story game on. Read this post and get better and the dynamics of storytelling.

And many thanks go to @Gregg Morris for originally finding and sharing Cynthia's work. Thanks Gregg!

But this is the new ideological world of marketing. Marketing is no longer about meeting the practical needs of customers. It's about high-minded principles of transparency and co-creating and conversations and...

Well, I'm afraid I have a very old guy opinion. You want customers raving about your brand? Sell them a good fucking product.

As you know if you read this blog regularly (or as regularly as I write it, anyway), I have strong opinions about some things. For example: I believe that storytelling should be seen not as an expert skill but as an innate capacity available to all human beings. I believe that the benefits of listening to stories and making sense of them should not depend on outside analysts, but should be available to groups of people working together for their own benefit. I believe that stories should be seen not as commodities to be consumed but as the lifeblood of families, communities, organizations, and societies. I have spent fifteen years working toward these goals, and I am passionate about them. But I've also thought a lot about whether being passionate about a goal is a help or a hindrance in meeting that goal. This essay is about those thoughts.

Gregg Morris's insight:

You're going to have to invest a bit of time but it will be well worth it!

If you want to separate your content from your competitors, storytelling is a great tactic to add to your content marketing strategy. Several interesting case studies have shown how the implementation of storytelling can triple sales within one year. The best part is that any business can use storytelling in their content marketing strategy by following these five best practices.

What a great article! Thanks to fellow curator Gregg Morris @Gregg Morris for finding and sharing it.

Here's what I like: the case studies and proof the author, Jasmine Henry, uses to back up her points. Gotta love that. No wild speculation here -- just solid material on how storytelling has produced results for real companies, and why.

The tips given are also right on. Go read the article, grab the examples, and follow Henry's advice. It's a great way to start off the week and the month of February!

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Creating engaging newsletters with your curated content is really easy.